Today's modern armies make wide use of computer based systems. These armies rely on sophisticated systems to deliver to the forces in the front the latest and most reliable information. One of the key types of information needed is the accurate location of ground forces, especially in intricate and complicated situations such as urban warfare.
Urban warfare has become, in today's battlefields, more and more common. Many of the conflicts today involve war against local militia which operates from within local innocent population located in dense urban areas.
Fighting in an urban environment was never an easy task for any regular army. Regular armies depend on heavy armored vehicles and tanks for the deployment of soldiers and as main combating units. These vehicles usually have a navigation system based on GPS (Global Positioning System) that tends to give poor readings in dense urban surroundings. This creates situations in which the crew of the vehicle fails to locate itself accurately. Also the close proximity of neighboring friendly fighting units creates a major need for the knowledge of the accurate location of these units, in order to minimize cases of “friendly fire”.
The increasing use and development of autonomous vehicles as part of the fighting units, and as auxiliary support units for human fighters has also created a situation where a need for a reliable navigation system in urban areas exists.
The method most commonly used today for the navigation of vehicles (autonomous, semi-autonomous, and human driven) is mainly based on the GPS. For the GPS system to work properly a clear line of sight with the sky is needed. In urban areas the skies are mostly obscure by surrounding buildings and the GPS system fails to deliver a reliable solution.
Navigation solutions presented in the prior art include a receptor, which is designed to present navigation data, and an external station, from where navigation data is obtained and/or cross-referenced. Proper operation of these solutions requires continuous and uninterrupted communication between the receptor and the external station. Such communication is not always possible due to physical blockage caused by buildings, etc; electronic warfare; and numerous additional reasons.
As of yet, no real solution to the problems discussed above has been suggested. A partial solution can be obtained by the use of aerial photos. It is important to mention that in cases as described above, the use of a map and compass is close to useless since most of the surroundings are obscured and it is very difficult to find one's location in the map. Also, when dealing with autonomous vehicles, such a solution is not suitable.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a sensor assembly capable of providing accurate navigation readings and which is designed especially for situations where prior art navigation systems fails to yield acceptable readings, either due to physical location limitation or electronic warfare such as communication blockage.
It is another purpose of the present invention to provide a sensor assembly to be used on autonomous land vehicle for independent navigation in urban areas.
It is yet another purpose of the present invention to provide a method for using a sensor assembly to follow a previously traversed path, when the information from the previous traversal is available.
It is further a purpose of the present invention to provide a simple visualization of the present location and other navigation information on a three dimensional model of the surroundings if such exists.
Further purposes and advantages of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.